Many times Broward divorce attorneys receive telephone calls from a parent who claims that the other parent has abducted their child. However, many individuals are unaware of the Hague Convention, a multinational treaty that provides an expeditious method to return a child taken from one member nation to another.

The Hague Convention insures the prompt return of children who have been abducted from their country of habitual residence or wrongfully retained in a contracting state not their country of habitual residence. While the Hague Convention only applies to children under the age of 16, it preserves the status quo time-sharing and child custody arrangement that was in place before an alleged wrongful removal or retention deterring a parent from forum shopping to a more sympathetic court.

The United States of America would like Japan to sign a global convention on international parental child abduction. This would assist foreign nationals who are denied contact, access and time-sharing with children by their Japanese former spouse. Japan is one of seven nations that have not signed the Hague Convention.